2018 Tesla Model S: adaptive cruise control problems

Filed Jan 14, 2026 · Driver assistance · VA

Recently right side blind spot monitor camera stopped working. As result, majority of safety features in vehicle has been disabled to include forward collision warning, adaptive cruise control, and many other safety features of the vehicle.

Filed Feb 23, 2025 · Driver assistance · SC

In July 2024 all the cameras on the Tesla Model S except the rear stopped working after a failed software update. This meant that all of the driver assistance systems as well as GPS, adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning, forward collision warning etc stopped working. The lack of availability of this system meant that the car no longer had any advanced safety features that came with the car. It took many months for Tesla service to diagnose and fix the problem, which they identified as a failure of the Auto Pilot computer. After I was finally able to get an appointment with the Service center, they replaced the Autopilot computer at a cost of over $1500. The failure first appeared in July 2024. The symptom was GPS location being stuck and Autopilot and all safety features being not available.

Filed Jan 14, 2024 · Driver assistance · CA · crash · 2 injuries

Multiple components failed or malfunctioned. FSD beta, lane keeping assistance, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, and Automatic emergency braking, all failed or malfunctioned. I have requested TESLA to provide me the details on what happened, but after multiple attempts of reaching out to them, they are not providing any answers. I was driving with my son and we both got injured, my son was admitted to the hospital for 4 days. I am not sure if TESLA inspected it, they are not answering my questions. There was no warning or there were no symptoms of the problem before the failure. This is what happened, I was driving on FSD beta on a 2-way street with one lane in both directions, The car suddenly drifted, crossed the opposite lane, went over the sidewalk, and hit a tree. The airbags were released, and the front of the car was destroyed. The speed limit on the road was 25, and as it was in FSD mode, the speed was locked in at 25 mph. I was driving with my son, and my son got a lot of bruises internal and external from the seat belt, I had some bruises on my forehead. This is a complete failure of Tesla's FSD capability because it didn't detect the tree or the sidewalk and failed to apply the brakes. The car was declared a total loss by the insurance company. I am attaching a few photographs of the car after the accident.

Filed Oct 22, 2023 · Acceleration, Driver assistance · TX

While driving using cruise control, in the space of 9-10 miles, the vehicle had 14-16 instances of sudden, unexpected braking for no reason. Most were moderate braking incidents slowing the car 15-30 mph before I hit the accelerator to get the car back up to speed. 2 incidents were where the car slowed 5-10 mph then resumed speed. Very disconcerting. There was little to no traffic on the road and in every case, there was no other car within a 1/2 mile or more to the front. Finally got fed up with this and turned off cruise. Left cruise control off as I passed through a city then decided to try it again. Soon after engaging cruise at 72 mph, the car suddenly and violently braked for no reason. It was such a hard braking that one of my dogs in the back seat crashed into the front seat. The hard braking continued until the speed was about 20 mph at which point, I hit the accelerator in order to resume speed. Note that no other car was visible on the roadway which was a 4 lane highway. Conditions were clear and dry. Soon after this incident, while still on cruise, the car suddenly braked moderately hard. Since the road was clear before and behind me, I decided to see what would happen. The car slowed to 38 mph and stayed at that speed for 3-4 seconds then slowly resumed the set speed. A short time later 1-2 miles further, the exact same sequence happened again. Again, note the road was clear with zero traffic ahead of or behind me. I then turned off cruise and decided to drive manually the rest of the way. This car is dangerous and should be removed from the road

Filed Jul 25, 2023 · Brakes, Driver assistance · NC

I was using the Enhanced Cruise Control and the car just slammed on brakes out of nowhere. There was not any cars ahead or beside me at the time. This has happened about 5-6 times since I purchased the vehicle on March 10, 2023

Filed Jun 13, 2023 · Driver assistance · NH

While driving on the highway using cruise control, the car unexpectedly and rapidly slowed down. This has happened several (5-10) times, day and night, generally in low traffic areas (mostly with no traffic anywhere nearby). I have experienced this issue throughout my ownership of the car. In the most recent case, the car seemed to think that the speed limit had dropped to 35mph, perhaps seeing a sign from a nearby road. Other times, I could perceive no cause, so UNKNOWN. The date below is the most recent time, where the car thought the speed limit dropped.

Filed Mar 19, 2023 · Brakes, Driver assistance · CO

On March 17, 2023 at approximately 4:00 pm MT, I was traveling at approximately 75 MPH with adaptive cruise control and auto pilot engaged when the car suddenly applied brakes with no obstruction ahead or behind or on the side. The car quickly slowed down to approximately 55 MPH, released the brakes and began to accelerate back to the speed limit of 75 MPH.

Filed Mar 1, 2023 · Driver assistance · MN

I was using the vehicle's traffic aware cruise control, but not autopilot and the vehicle experiences sudden braking without warning or reason. I had no other vehicles near me, on a straight, flat road with no bridges, signs or other things to cast shadows. The weather was sunny, but the sun was not shining on the front of the vehicle. The most extreme instance starting braking the vehicle from 84mph and the vehicle reached close to 40mph before I could overtake the system by pressing on the accelerator. My passengers were thrown forward as well as our items within the vehicle. I'm thankful there was no vehicle behind me that could have rear-ended me. There is no reasonable way to contact the manufacturer other than asking for a service appointment which can't fix software errors. The manufacturer should provide an option for basic cruise control.

Filed Jan 8, 2023 · Driver assistance · WA

Repeated problems with "phantom braking" when adaptive cruise control or autosteering is engaged. The vehicle would make unexpected hard breaking without any obvious triggers. In the past, I have made multiple "report bug" to Tesla immediately following phantom breaking, but no improvement noted thus far. This problem recurred yet again on I-5 today; the vehicle suddenly made a hard break despite absence of any issues in front of me; this resulted in the vehicle behind me having to take immediate evasive action by breaking and making a sudden lane change to avoid a collision.

Filed Dec 17, 2022 · Acceleration, Driver assistance · CO

While driving out 2018 Model S, it will brake hard while in adaptive cruise control of full self-driving mode for no reason. This happens frequently, whether driving on the highway or on city roads. It is terribly unsafe. I'm afraid eventually someone following too close will hit me.

Filed Nov 10, 2022 · Acceleration, Brakes · NM

Apparent software issue with Adaptive Cruise Control causing unexpected hard braking at highway speeds. Random hard braking occurs on open road when road is clear, flat, and no other vehicles nearby. Narrowly avoided being 'rear-ended' during several occurrences by car behind. I drove the car this week on a two day road trip from Palm Springs to Santa Fe and this issue must have occurred 18-20 times during the 750 mile trip. I also tried using difference settings and nothing seemed to eliminate the issue.

Filed Jun 7, 2022 · Brakes, Driver assistance · NJ

The car brakes when it is on Adaptive Cruise Control mode. The braking happens for no reason. It happens when the car is approaching an overpass. I have to take control of the car immediately.